New signing electric as Newcastle United Women show the men how it's done

It was a bad weekend for Eddie Howe's men who had a shocker Fulham on Saturday, but Newcastle United Women are up and running just two games into the Barclays FA Women’s Championship.

After a tough opening encounter at London City Lionesses where they drew 1 – 1 they were back at home in Kingston Park against Sheffield United. Their first home game in The Championship and their first win in the Championship after a good afternoon’s work in front of an excellent adoring 3,221 home crowd on Sunday afternoon.

The point at London City is looking better with each passing week. The Lionesses having picked up two wins in their two game since to establish themselves as one of the early season pace setting favourites.

For United the 2 – 0 win over their Yorkshire counterparts established them within higher division and should give them confidence and optimism moving forward. It was a vital win and three points against an established Championship side.

True, Sheffield United are not off to the best of starts with narrow defeats to Durham and Charlton Athletic but they are a more than capable outfit. But those two defeats had marked this as a game Newcastle targeted for their first win and they hit the bullseye dead centre.

Manager Becky Langley made changes to her starting XI with Captain Amber-Keegan Stobbs back in the line-up joining Beth Lumsden and Lois Joel who also got awarded starting positions.

All three were involved in Newcastle’s two goals inside the first 45 minutes which gave Langley’s side a flying start after a dominant first half performance. The opening goal coming after only five minutes.

Jas McQuade’s powerful run down the left was halted by the Sheffield defence but Stobbs picked the loose ball inside the visitor’s area before squaring neatly into Shania Hayles. United’s wide attacker spinning delightfully past her marker to create space.

Just left of the six-yard box Hayles clipped a delightful chip to the back post finding Lumsden arriving with purpose to spectacularly volley home from four yards out. The perfect start for United and they immediately went looking for more.

Hayles herself might have gotten on the scoresheet on a couple of occasions. Lumsden returning the assist favour by putting the Jamaican international in on goal but Sian Rogers in the Sheffield goal got down to make a smart save to deny United a second.

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The second chance came when Hayles skipped past Blades’ skipper Satara Murray before firing inches wide of the far post. It almost seemed inevitable that it would be Hayles that doubled Newcastle’s lead which she did on 41 minutes.

This time it was a superb overlapping run by full back Joel down the right that got her to the byline. She drove her cross to the near post and Hayles showed excellent forward play to anticipate the ball in.

Nipping in between defenders and in front of Rogers she powered home a close range header to make it two goals in two games for the summer signing and give United a two-goal cushion at the break. Our new recruit from Bristol City was looking electric after scoring one and setting up another.

It was a cushion they needed as Sheffield came out strongly in the second half. This was when ex-Sunderland keeper and last season’s Championship player of the year Claudia Moan showed why Langley had coveted her signature.

She was beaten early in the second half but Leanne Conway’s half-volley from close-in came back off Moan’s crossbar before United’s keeper’s heroic efforts started. Firstly Maria Farrugia was clean throw on goal with only Moan in front of her.

But United’s last line of defence stood tall, was unflustered and made a brilliant block to keep out the Sheffield’s #9’s effort. Moan also reacted smartly when Ellen Molloy got in behind her defence to get down low to her right and make a fine smothering save.

In between times Lumsden went close hitting on just wide from the edge of the box and then Elysia Boddy almost had a goal of the season contender with a ferocious 25-yard effort that Rogers could only watch fizz just wide of her far post.

Newcastle though despite making five substitutions controlled the game well as time ticked down and almost added a third on 87 minutes. Amy Andrews driving hard into the Sheffield box before squaring unselfishly to substitute Sophie Haywood.

Unfortunately for Haywood and United the strike wasn’t as clean as both would have liked and Rogers was able to dive to her right and claw the ball away to prevent her side from falling to a heavier defeat.

It was a very pleased Becky Langley at the final whistle who described her team’s performance as not perfect but good enough to fully deserve the three points. A fact that the Geordie faithful all agreed with as they celebrated the victory with the player’s at the end.